Gehenna

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a place or state of extreme suffering or misery

   The burning valley became a Gehenna from which the refugees struggled to escape.

2. 2
   noun

   hell as a place of punishment in Jewish and Christian tradition

   The preacher warned that the unrepentant would face Gehenna.

Through Late Latin gehenna and Greek geenna from Hebrew ge Hinnom, literally "Valley of Hinnom," a valley outside ancient Jerusalem associated in biblical tradition with child sacrifice and later with divine punishment. The name developed the senses "hell" and "place of misery."

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